Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei issued the following statement today following the release of a long-delayed report on hospital industry finances, costs and reserves by the Patrick Administration:“It’s disappointing to learn that the Patrick Administration waited until after the Senate’s amendment filing deadline had already passed to release this report. With the Senate prepared to debate a comprehensive cost containment proposal tomorrow to help ease the health care burden on small businesses in Massachusetts, it would have been nice for members to have the information from this report in hand a lot earlier than today.
Two years have passed since the Legislature first asked for this information, and it’s been almost a year since the original filing deadline passed. I still don’t understand why it has taken the Administration so long to get this information and make it public.
Governor Patrick often talks about the need for transparency in state government, but he has been less than forthcoming in releasing the critical information the Legislature needs to make informed decisions. It’s not that surprising, however, considering that everything the Governor’s done so far on health care cost containment has been done more for political posturing than actually trying to solve the problem.”
